Saturday, February 10, 2007

Ultra Mobile PC's and Ultra Mobile Devices at CES

I've finally gotten around to writing about an area which I'm working working on, developing ultra mobile products. These are small portable devices which add ubiquitious Internet access and other functionality to consumer electronics products.

Here are some links to coverage of Ultra Mobile devices from CES:

Engadget has a good summary of Ultra Mobile PC's at CES.
Here are three ultra mobile devices which I am currently leading development teams for:

This device is a next generation Ultra Mobile PC which was first unveiled in Intel CEO Paul Otellini's keynote speech at the Fall Intel Developer Forum, San Francisco during September 2006. This design incorporates a swiveling display to reveal a thumb keyboard below it. It is designed to provide consumers a portable way to take the Internet along with them wherever they may go.




A second design is designed to be used by middle school students ages 11-14 as lightweight, rugged portable learning PC to be used in the classroom, home and in-between. It incorpates a number of features to improve the surviability of the device while being carried around. One design innovation is the padded fabric cover which serves as a protective cover, a hinge for the display and keyboard pieces and a stand. This device should not to be confused with Intel's Classmate PC project which is meant for developing markets.

This third design is a concept of an ultra mobile device designed for car navigation and entertainment but which can be removed from its car dock and used a portable Internet terminal.
I'll continue to add more comments about these and other devices as they get closer to introduction.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice to know that these are moving towards introduction. The Carpc looks especially nice. I hope thats got some ruggedisation too.

Will you (and your baby's) be at CeBit because I'd love to meet up and talk about these designs and UMPC tech in general if possible.

Regards
Steve.
Carrypad/UMPCPortal

Wendell Wenjen said...

Thanks for your comment, Steve. No plans to be at CeBit but if you are going to be in Beijing on April 17 to attend the Intel Developer Forum, there should be some new devices on display.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting post. Certainly I think rotating screens and thumbpads are a very practical design. The only thing that puts me off the orange model is the pointer stick, I'm a touchpad guy.

I'm very suprised that zero UMPC devices from what I make out use a clambshell design or mini convertible. Closest I have seen is the fujitsu p1610 which is a little big really to be a UMPC